紐時賞析／牛排裡藏什麼？歐洲掀食品標籤大戰

德國柏林2019年9月慶祝咖哩香腸日，桌上擺滿咖哩香腸。路透

What’s in a Steak? Europe Food Label Fight

牛排裡藏什麼？歐洲掀食品標籤大戰

Buying a veggie burger or a cauliflower steak in Europe may soon be a thing of the past, after lawmakers in the European Parliament voted Wednesday to restrict the use of terms like “burger” or “steak” to food made with meat.

在歐洲，購買「素食漢堡」或「花椰菜排」可能即將成爲過去式。歐洲議會週三通過決議，擬限制「漢堡」「牛排」等字詞僅能用於以肉類製成的食品。

The vote reflects a push by Europe’s powerful agricultural lobby, which for years has pressed officials to crack down on what they say is the misuse of terms associated with cuts of meat. Other branches of the European Union’s government, the council and the commission, need to weigh in before the proposal becomes law in the 27-nation bloc.

這項投票反映出歐洲強大的農業遊說團體多年來的壓力，他們主張應取締非肉製品「濫用」與肉類切割部位相關的用語。該提案在正式成爲歐盟27國的法律前，仍須經理事會與執委會審議。

The proposal states that names such as burger and steak, along with sausage, hamburger, escalope, egg yolks and egg whites, must be used “exclusively for products containing meat,” defined as “the edible parts of the animals.”

提案指出，漢堡和牛排，以及香腸、牛肉漢堡、薄肉片、蛋黃和蛋白等名詞，必須「專門用於含有肉類的產品」，其中肉類被定義爲「動物的可食用部分」。

Debate over the proposal has been heated.

這項提案引發激烈爭議。

“People can eat tofu or test-tube patties all they want, but it’s not meat,” said Céline Imart, a member of the European Parliament who represents a largely agricultural district in France, who proposed the move. She insisted that allowing nonmeat alternatives to share terms with animal-based products could mislead consumers.

代表法國農業選區的歐洲議會議員席琳．伊瑪特是提案人。她說：「人們想吃豆腐或試管肉排都可以，但那不是肉。」她堅稱，允許非肉類替代產品與動物製品共用名稱，可能會造成誤導消費者。

Proponents of alternatives to meat have argued that using such well-known terms is sensible, and that consumers are savvy enough to identify the protein that went into the products they bought.

支持植物性產品的一方則認爲，使用這些廣爲人知的詞彙是合理的，而且消費者足以分辨自己購買的產品所含的蛋白質來源。

A change in the law could cost Rügenwalder Mühle, Germany’s leading producer of alternative meat products, several million euros, said Claudia Hauschild, a spokesperson for the company.

德國最大植物肉製造商「呂根瓦爾德磨坊」的發言人克勞蒂亞．豪斯柴爾德表示，法規改變可能導致公司損失數百萬歐元。

The company, which also makes one of Germany’s most beloved sausages, Teewurst, clearly labels all of its products, she said. “You really have to try to mix up a vegan schnitzel with a pork schnitzel,” she noted.

她說，公司生產德國最受歡迎的香腸之一「德國下午茶腸」，所有產品都標示清楚。她指出：「你得花點力氣才能把素食炸肉排和豬肉炸肉排搞混。」

A survey conducted by the European Consumer Organization in 2020 found that a majority of people in Europe were not confused by nonmeat products that shared the same names as animal-based counterparts, as long as the packaging clearly labeled them as “vegan,” “plant-based” or “alternative.”

歐洲消費者組織2020年的調查顯示，大多數歐洲人並不會因植物性產品與肉類產品共用名稱而感到混淆，只要包裝上清楚標示「純素」「植物性」或「替代品」等字樣即可。

“With everything else going on in the world, you would think the European Parliament would have better things to do,” Anna Strolenberg, a member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands, argued. “Let’s work on the stuff that matters and not identity politics for burgers.”

荷蘭籍歐洲議會議員安娜．斯特羅倫伯格主張：「世上還有那麼多其他事情正在發生，你會認爲歐洲議會應該有更重要的事情要做。我們應該把精力放在更重要的事情上，別再玩漢堡的身分政治了。」

文／Melissa Eddy，譯／羅方妤

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